ISTANBUL
Anadolu Agency (AA) Executive Board Chairman and Director General Kemal Ozturk said on Thursday that AA aimed to close gap in economy news reports in Turkey.
Turkey, the 16th largest economy in the world and the 6th largest one in Europe, should have a powerful media sector in the area of economy, Ozturk said at a gathering to promote AA Finance News Terminal (aafinans.com) for market professionals, which was also attended by Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan in Istanbul on Thursday.
Ozturk said that AA had been working on the Finance News Terminal for a long time and it was a very important project.
Anadolu Agency had been established in order to make the voice of Turkey be heard in the world, he said.
"We have initiated a restructuring process in the AA," he said, adding that they began a journey with the objective of "becoming a powerful news agency of powerful Turkey."
Ozturk said that they prepared a project called AA's Centennial Vision.
"We said that we will be one of the top five news agencies of the world by 2020," he said. Ozturk said that they informed Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc and Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan about the project. "I would like to thank Babacan for his great support," he said.
AA has renewed its logo, established News Academy and launched war journalism certificate program, he said.
Ozturk said that AA broadcast news reports in five languages; Turkish, English, Arabic, Bosnian and Russian on its website.
"We opened directorates in nine regions of the world and we increased the number of news reports with finance and company news as well as exclusive reports and internet reports," he said. Ozturk said that the number of news reports of AA rose by 48 percent in the past one year, adding that the agency's incomes also rose by 45 percent.
Ozturk said, "We considered that we must do something in regard to finance journalism in Turkey. We, as the national news agency of this country, should broadcast news reports rapidly, accurately and properly." That's why AA launched Finance News Terminal, he said. The agency would have economists in AA's offices in 20 Arab countries one year later, he said.
"We will air new stories on economic developments in the Middle East. Within next few years, we will broadcast news reports both in Turkish and in English from all over the world," he said.
